Production Machining

NOV 2017

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 35 of 63

Most of the parts the company produces start from bar
material, whether completed on the Swiss machines or
eventually handed off to the milling centers. When the
company first opened, it was running aluminum bronze
bushings on the lathes. Now more common parts are cam
pins, firing pins, ejectors, extractors, and firing pins within
the 20-mm window. Materials range from aluminum nickel
bronze to 4340, as well as titanium.
e Swiss design has been beneficial in helping to
conserve precious, limited floor space. "With square footage
at a premium, we fit in machines that can do both side A and
side B, turning and milling, and they can run unattended,"
says Adam Naylor, turning operations manager.
Material to Parts
e company runs two shifts, with employees on the floor
20 hours a day, but the Tsugamis run 24 hours a day. LNS
bar feeders supply each of these machines with material.
With a half-inch bar, 15 bars of material can be loaded,
which is usually enough to run all day. e Swiss machines
also include a chucker package that helps to cut down on
remnant losses. "Instead of running a 12-foot bar and losing
the last 8 or 11 inches of the bar on the drop, chucker mode
brings that down to 2 or 3 inches at most," Mr. Naylor says.
Converting to chucker mode is relatively simple. e
operator removes the guide bushing and places a protec-
tive plate in place. e Z1 access comes all the way up
to the main wall in the machine, allowing it to run as a
standard chucker.
Once the parts have been completed on the Tsugami,
they go to a wash and tumbling operation and, depending
on the part, they may then go straight to the customer or
else to heat treating.
Typically, about 10 different parts will run across the
Tsugamis per week, and more than 100 different parts have
been produced on them since the company opened. Many
of the parts are stand-alone, but Azimuth also does about
25,000 assemblies per month.
Mr. Naylor says it is usability that keeps the company
coming back to Tsugami. "ey're extremely user friendly,
and the FANUC controls are solid," he says. e consis-
tency from one machine to the next pays off as operators
can move from machine to machine with little downtime
or program changes.
One common part for the company is a Glock firing
pin, which is machined complete on the SS20 machines.
Made from 17-4 stainless, about 90 percent of the part is
machined on the main spindle. While they haven't been
:: Typical parts the company makes on the Tsugami Swiss
machines include small firearms products such as firing
pins, ejectors, extractors, barrels and slides.
:: The company has provided multiple designs for the
Glock striker firing pin. The parts are dropped complete on
the Tsugami SS20.
SPECIAL COVERAGE
34 PRODUCTION MACHINING :: NOVEMBER 2017